Super World Karts is a retro mode-7 style 16-bit kart racer, being created by solo indie developer Paul Hamilton (One Legged Seagull) in Australia. It looks and plays like a classic '90s karts game, but also adds some modern game elements like:

16:9 - 1080p HD resolution at 60 fps, (where available)

achievements & collection goals,

drift-boosts & analogue steering,

character & track unlocks,

original fun split-screen Battle modes,

and 3 star rankings for each race.

Initially available for OUYA, Windows & Mac. Other platforms are dependent upon stretch goals laid out at the bottom of the page.

Inspired by racers I played as a kid, chiefly, the original Mario Kart game from the SNES, StreetRacer from the MegaDrive, and Wacky Wheels on the PC. It is something I've longed to do, and to do right.

Some of my major focuses here have been to get the controls feeling right (especially the drifting), achieving consistency in the graphical style, and crafting a believable AI for the CPU karts to provide a fun, exciting, and challenging race.

The game already plays really well, even in this partially constructed stage of development. So far it has been self-funded, I've taken it as far as I can by myself, and now I really need your help to get it finished. There are also some things I just don't have the skills to do by myself. It needs around another 6 to 7 months of full-time work to complete the coding and art work, and it needs professional music and voice work created to take it to the next level.

Currently the game's main features include:

Over 20 characters to choose from, all with varying handling stats

Some of which being Bonus unlockable characters from sweet Indie games,

10 tracks filling up 2 cups, (30 tracks in the final game)

Mirror Mode & Time Trials,

Fun original Battle Modes with different play styles, some based around other Indie games!

3 speed classes, 50cc, 100cc, 150cc.

and everything that goes into a good fun race:

Boost pads & Ramps,

Power-up jars (with 8 currently working power-ups),

Gold rings to collect and spend, hidden Golden Shrooms to find,

Drift-boosts to earn, Shortcuts to discover, Hazards to avoid,

3 star rankings for each race, and for the cups there are Bronze, Silver & Gold to be won.

The 3 star ranking system provides an extra challenge to the races. To get all 3 stars in a race, not only must you finish first, but you also have to collect a set of Gold Rings & Golden Shrooms.

Local split-screen multiplayer games, like Towerfall, Toto Temple Deluxe, and Duck Game can be a staggering amount of fun. They're something my family and I like to fire up on weekends, and we always have a blast.

For Super World Karts, I really want to learn from those games and develop some great multiplayer battle modes which, just like the games mentioned above, will be entertaining for more than just one weekend. There's an expected 3 balloons type mode, but I'm also bringing some different battle styles too.

Check out the battle mode "Bomb Blast" here,

Bomb Blast begins with a randomly chosen player carrying a bomb which will explode in 60 seconds. The only way to save yourself is to "drop the bomb" by crashing into another player's kart, sticking it to them! It's Boom Time!

Along with Bomb Blast, I'm also working on some custom battle arenas with a few of the crossover Indies mentioned in the Indie Karts section below, with arenas themed like the games they're from, not just visually but with their rules too.

For example, in the Toto Temple Deluxe arena you have to dash to the centre to be the first to grab the goat, then try to avoid the other player's efforts to steal the goat from you. Keep the goat until you have 4000 points to win the round.

Another Indie Karts crossover battle mode is the Fist Of Awesome themed Fist Fight Arena! One punch from these giant spring loaded gloves will send your opponent hurtling across the arena, putting them in a spin. These are no kid gloves!

Serve up some Fist!

More Indie themed arenas like these will be included in the final game, each with their own individual play style such as the Whispering Willows themed Ghost Hunt, and the Duck Game themed Drive-by Quackers, which will have you shooting pistols from your kart sideways, aimed with the left & right shoulder buttons!

More weapons than you could throw a sack of weapons at!

Everybody knows when you go karting, it's not all about finding the racing line, you also have to get your hands dirty, and racing in Super World Karts is no exception! To help you take advantage on the track you'll have: Watermelon projectiles, Turbo Chilies, Exploding Pineapples, slippery Melted Ice-creams, and Loconuts (Locomotive heat-seeking coconuts!), plus there'll be more weapons to come too.

There are a lot of characters right now, so there's something for everyone. Some I've created originally for this project, others are characters from cool Indie games who are making cameo appearances as bonus karts. Here's a couple of the original characters I've been redesigning recently:

Rojo (pronounced Ro-Ho) from Spain and Yolanda from China, are both heavy characters, with low acceleration and great top speed

In addition to the kart characters, there's also Dig'n'Dug - The Guacamolé Bros!

These little guys will be your in-game Pit Crew. They're going to keep your lap times for you, let you know which lap you're on, and they'll keep track of how many Gold Rings you've collected. Gold Rings can be spent in the in-game Garage Pit Shop, which is run by Dig'n'Dug, to unlock features like extra tracks, bonus karts, and paint jobs. (not an IAP shop btw - when you get this game, you get the lot!)

Super World Karts also has an awesome array of bonus characters, coming over from some really sweet Indie games, many of which were also KickStarter projects. Ready to burn some pixel rubber are:

For the music I'm teaming up with Shannon Mason (aka Pongball), to come up with some really sweet music that fits the game's jolly upbeat atmosphere - a preview of this will be coming soon.

In the meantime, you can also have a listen to some of @Pongball's previous work on her Soundcloud. I'm sure you'll agree this is a perfect match!

I've come to Kickstarter because there's still a lot of work to be done creating the characters, the new tracks (there's going to be 30 tracks in total), the extra battle modes, tackling idiosyncrasies building for the varying platforms, and adding all the polish you expect and want to see in a game, is all going to take a further 6 to 7 months of full-time work to complete.

I'm a huge fan of living within your means, and I'm committed to creating this on as tight a budget as possible, without restricting the quality. Here's a quick breakdown of where the funds will be traveling to:

"just an excuse to make a nice pie chart!" - Dig'n'Dug

We're participating in OUYA's #FreeTheGames Fund, created by OUYA to support developers making new and creative console games. OUYA will match your pledge dollar-for-dollar up to your goal amount (and a max of $250,000), so help us get there and make a great game for everyone! To be eligible for this match, we commit that this game will be an OUYA exclusive for a period of time. To learn more about OUYA, go to www.OUYA.tvNote: the OUYA exclusivity period applies only to other console versions and does not affect the Windows/Mac/Linux release!

If we can reach the $16,000 goal you'll be helping to make this game what it needs to be - FANTASTIC! Beyond that, I've got some stretch goals we can aim for too:

$18,000 - A Linux port will be included in the list of platforms you can choose from, and released alongside the Windows & Mac versions!

$20,000 - Double LP - This will double the music budget, allowing us to have twice as many beautiful tracks to listen to! Sweet!

$24,000 - GameStick port will be included in the list of platforms you can choose from, and released later in 2015!

$32,000 - Wii-U port will be included in the list of platforms you can choose from, and released later in 2015!

$42,000 - Xbox port will be included in the list of platforms you can choose from, and released later in 2015!

$64,000 - PlayStation & Vita ports will be included in the list of platforms you can choose from, and released later in 2015!

$88,000 - The Ultimate Stretch Goal - This goal would allow me to pay a good pixel artist to help me create the graphics for the game while I concentrate on solidifying the gameplay experience with my ninja programming skills, essentially creating a more detailed richer experience for every version of the game in a more relaxed way, while allowing the stretch ports be constructed sooner and exploring other platforms to target like the 3ds and Kindle FireTV.

As a bonus "thank you" to all PIT CREW members I'm going to make personalised kart number plates, with a (clean) name of your choice (up to 8 characters long), which will be hung on the back wall of Dig'n'Dug's Pit Lane Garage Shop! That's the shop everyone will be going to, to spend up their gold rings on unlocking extra tracks, bonus characters, and paint jobs. To be honest, it's a bit of a mess in there right now, but they've promised to have it clean before any plates are ready to go up on the wall. Those guys hang out in there all day and night, so it's quite the honour to have your name hanging in there with them! (they made me add that bit)

They've cleaned up a section of the garage now, so here's a preview:

Personalised Plates now start at the $35 tier

Pit Crew Chief tiers (starting at $100) will receive golden custom plates, which will feature in the most visible spots on the wall!

As a bonus to yourself, if you add $60 (approx. $55.60 USD) (postage & packaging is included) to any tier $10 and above, you can get yourself a replica SNES game box with the game, the soundtrack, and the .pdf book, all on CD! This offer is ONLY available by pledging to the Kickstarter, it won't be available in any other way after the Kickstarter has ended! Super rare!

Add-on copy:

You can add additional digital copies of the game to your pledge for $10AUD per copy, just increase your pledge amount, but don't change your tier! Extra copies of the game are available for Win / Mac / Linux / OUYA only.

Thanks for taking a look and hopefully supporting this! Please think of passing it on to a friend or sharing on the twitters / youtubes / facebooks / soundclouds etc.

See you on the Starting Grid!

Risks and challenges

I really don't see anything becoming a road block to this project. The sources providing the rewards are reliable established quality merchants. I know I can complete the game on time, as I've got a solid understanding of how long it takes me to create things, having already completed a couple of smaller projects this year for iOS, Android, & Gamestick.

When a problem comes along, you must whip it. Whack-tsssh! Whip it good!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge AU$ 20 or more
About US$ 15

(approx. $18.61 USD) - "Co-driver Backer" - Thanked and named in the credits as a Co-driver Backer, all previous rewards, plus a digital PDF featuring artwork and screenshots from the development process and a map book with the maps of each track showing the locations of all rings, shrooms, and shortcuts!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge AU$ 24 or more
About US$ 17

(approx. $22.37 USD) - "Game + OST" - Thanked and named in the credits as a Super Backer, all previous rewards, Get the game, in digital form, on the platform of your choice. PLUS the beautiful digital soundtrack created by Pongball

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge AU$ 27 or more
About US$ 20

(approx. $25.17 USD) - "Early Bird Champion Backer" - Same rewards as the Champion Backer tier, but, for the first week only, get it at a lower price. Thanked and named in the credits as a Beta Tester, plus all previous rewards.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge AU$ 32 or more
About US$ 23

(approx. $29.84 USD) - "Champion Backer" BETA ACCESS - Thanked and named in the credits as a Beta Tester, all previous rewards + BETA ACCESS: get hold of the game while it’s still in development and help shape SWK with suggestions and feedback! (Early Access will be granted before the year ends!)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge AU$ 35 or more
About US$ 25

(approx. $32.71 USD) -=== FINAL WEEK SUPER DIGITAL TIER ===- "Entry Level Digital SWK *PIT CREW*" - Thanked and named in the credits as a *PIT CREW* member, and become immortalised with a personalised number plate, made just for you and free for all to see on the back wall of Dig'n'Dug's pit lane garage shop in the game! Plus all previous rewards. Soundtrack, map book PDF, and Beta Access before year end.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge AU$ 42 or more
About US$ 31

(approx. $38.97 USD) - "SWK *PIT CREW* KEYRING" - Thanked and named in the credits as a *PIT CREW* member, and become immortalised with a personalised number plate, made just for you and free for all to see on the back wall of Dig'n'Dug's pit lane garage shop in the game! Plus all previous rewards.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge AU$ 100 or more
About US$ 73

(approx. $93.58 USD) Digital only "SWK *PIT CREW* CHIEF" - All previous digital rewards, thanked and named in the credits as a *PIT CREW* Chief, personalised number plate on Dig'n'Dug's garage shop wall in a PRIME spot (the sooner you pledge, the more prime the location!), the soundtrack in digital form, the art/map book PDF, exclusive Chief wallpapers, and BETA access! It's a digital bonanza!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge AU$ 128 or more
About $93

(approx. $119 USD) "SWK *PIT CREW* CHIEF" - All previous rewards, thanked and named in the credits as a *PIT CREW* Chief, personalised number plate on Dig'n'Dug's garage shop wall in a prime spot, plus receive the Super World Karts *PIT CREW* mug, the cap, & the polo shirt! And as if that wasn't enough already, you'll also receive the Soundtrack in CD form!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge AU$ 600 or more
About $436

(approx. $561 USD) Extremely Rare! "Founders Kart" - All previous rewards (including PIT CREW items) - plus YOU as a character in your own kart in the final game for the world to see! Just send me a photo of you / your loved one, wearing your driving outfit, and I'll create your character in 3d sprite form! You can even provide your characters voice sounds if you like too! The ULTIMATE package!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge AU$ 1,000 or more
About $727

(approx. $930 USD) Extremely Rare! "DOUBLE Founders Kart" - All previous rewards (including PIT CREW items) - plus YOU as a character in your own kart in the final game, plus a 2nd kart with a character of your choice, for the world to see! Just send me a photo of you & your loved one, wearing your driving outfit, and I'll create your characters in 3d sprite form! You can even provide your characters voice sounds if you like too! The ULTIMATE package DOUBLED!!